Monday, May 2, 2016

Being Stephen King

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by Meredith Cole

Is there a question today? There must be, but as I return home from the Edgar Awards on the train, I haven’t had a chance to dig it up. But I’m guessing most of us Criminal Minds are weary on this Monday from all the excitement of the Edgars and Malice Domestic. (Congratulations Art Taylor on your win!)

On Thursday night, I got to give the Best Short Story Edgar to… Stephen King! But he wasn’t able to be come to the Edgar Banquet. And apparently his editor is a bit shy. So I got to give the award and then accept it on his behalf as well.

Happily this video does NOT show me holding the Edgar statuette all by myself for the pictures (since I was both Meredith Cole and Stephen King that night…).
I know. I was confused, too. And really just relieved to have made it up and down the stairs without falling or dropping the Edgar award.

Now it’s back to the Monday grind. I’ll hang up the velvet dress
in my closet and put away the shoes, and return to the much less glamorous side
of a writer’s life: putting my butt in the chair and writing.

Q&A with Criminal Minds!

Question of the Week

Each week the crime fiction authors of Criminal Minds respond to a question about writing, reading, murder and mayhem.Question of the Week:: CraftWhen you have an idea for a book or story, do you tell people about it? How do you start writing? Do you think about it for a while? Write notes immediately? Think about the character first? Or plot first? Outline?

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Mondays with Susan

Susan C. Shea has a new series set in France. The latest is Dressed for Death in Burgundy. The third in her Dani O'Rourke series came out in Feb. 2016. She lives in Marin County, CA.

Mondays with Brenda

With numerous award nominations for her books, Brenda Chapman pens the Stonechild and Rouleau police procedural series; the Anna Sweet novellas for adult literacy; and the Jennifer Bannon mysteries for young adults. Booklist recommends the Stonechild series "highly to crime-fiction fans looking for a new author". Brenda lives in Ottawa, Canada.

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Terry Shames writes the Macavity Award-winning Samuel Craddock series, set in small-town Texas. BookPeople has twice dubbed her one of the top five Texas mystery authors.

Wednesdays with Cathy

Cathy Ace writes the traditional, Bony Blithe Award-winning Cait Morgan Mysteries, the WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries, set in her native Wales, and the IPPY Award-winning psychological suspense novel THE WRONG BOY is her latest novel. She lives in rural British Columbia.

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Dietrich Kalteis is the award-winning author of Ride the Lightning (bronze medal winner, 2015 Independent Publisher Book Awards, for best regional fiction), The Deadbeat Club, Triggerfish, House of Blazes (silver medal winner, 2017 Independent Publisher Book Awards, for best historical fiction), Zero Avenue and Poughkeepsie Shuffle. 50 of his short stories have also been published internationally. He lives with his family on Canada’s West Coast.

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James W. Ziskin (Jim to his friends) is the author of the Edgar-, Anthony-, Barry-, Lefty-, and Macavity-nominated Ellie Stone Mysteries. He's 6'2", weighs 200 pounds, and writes like a girl.

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Paul D. Marks pulled a gun on the LAPD...and lived to tell about. A former "script doctor," Paul's novel WHITE HEAT is a 2013 SHAMUS AWARD WINNER. Publishers Weekly calls WHITE HEAT a "taut crime yarn." Paul is also the author of over thirty published short stories in a variety of genres, including several award winners. GHOSTS OF BUNKER HILL, from the 12/16 Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, was voted #1 in the 2016 Ellery Queen Readers Poll.

Fridays with Abir

Abir Mukherjee is the Times bestselling author of the Sam Wyndham series of crime novels set in Raj era India. His debut, A Rising Man, won the CWA Endeavour Dagger for best historical crime novel of 2017 and was shortlisted for the MWA Edgar for best novel. His second novel, A Necessary Evil, won the Wilbur Smith Award for Adventure Writing, is currently shortlisted for the Barry for best novel, and was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of 2018. His third novel, Smoke and Ashes, is out in the UK and will be released in the US in March 2019. Abir grew up in Scotland and now lives in London with his wife and two sons.